external hd problem

[footfikinmasta]

I bought a nexstar 2 combo external HD enclosure for a 250 gig harddrive I had sitting around. I went through admistrative tool and formated the hard drive and it works perfect. The only problem I have is the way they want you to disconnect the harddrive and turn it off. They want you to double click on the "unplug or eject hardware" icon, highlight the external harddrive then click stop. After all that it should say seconds later " you may now safely remove this device" then you can turn it off. It gives me that " you may now safely remove this device" screen once and awhile, butmost of the time it says "the device" generic volume" cannot be stopped right now. try stopping later.

Doesn anyone one know why it is doing this? Is it ok to turn it off anyways?

[Andrew Downie]

It says that generally when you are still using a file or application on the drive that you want to disconnect.

Make sure that you have closed all windows containing files on the external drive, and that all applications and programs on the drive are not running before you disconnect it.


If you turn it off when files are in use, you run the risk of damaging the files or even the drive.


I would personally recommend that, if you are just using it for extra storage on one machine, you just shut the machine down.

That way, when the machine is off, you know its safe to turn the drive off because it is no longer is use.


Hope this helped.


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[Cricket]

I get that message when I still have a file open or the drive is the one I'm viewing in Windows Explorer. Just make sure anything to do with the external HDD is closed and you shouldn't get that message.

Cricket